Bediuzzaman Said Nursi was born early one spring morning in the village
of Nurs, a small hamlet in the province of Bitlis in eastern Turkey. The
year was 1293 according to the Rumi calendar then in use in the Ottoman
Empire, that is, 18771. The circumstances
into which he was born were humble; the house, of sun-dried brick, one
of twenty or so built against the south-facing slope of a valley in the
towering Taurus Mountains to the south of Lake Van.

Even at his birth the child displayed signs of being exceptional. It
is said that on coming into the world he peered around attentively, his
look fairly frightening those present. It was as if he was going to speak.
He did not cry, just clenched his fists. Then they chanted the call to
prayer in his ears, and named him SAID2.

Said's mother was called Nuriye, and his father, a villager with a small-holding
of land, was Mirza. They were a Kurdish family. Said was the fourth of
seven children. The two eldest were girls, Dürriye and Hanim, then came
his elder brother, Abdullah. Said was followed by two more boys, Mehmed
and Abdulmecid, and last was a girl, Mercan.

Mirza's forbears had come originally from Cizre on the Tigris3.
Also known as ‘Sufi’ Mirza, he died in the 1920's and was buried in the
graveyard at Nurs. At the head of his grave stands a rough uncut stone
with simply the name `Mirza' etched on it. Nuriye, Said's mother was from
the village of Bilkan, three hours distant from Nurs4.
Like her husband, she was devout and virtuous. She died during the First
World War and was also buried in Nurs. In later years, Said was to say:
"From my mother I learnt compassion, and from my father, orderliness and
regularity."5

Said passed his early years with his family in Nurs. Long winters in
the village, short summers in the higher pastures or in the gardens and
fields along the river banks in the valley bottom. A short growing season,
but sufficient to meet the villagers' needs. A life close to the natural
world, in harmony wilh its rhythms and cycles, full of wonders for an aware
and responsive child like Said. He was unusually intelligent, always investigating
things, questioning and seeking answers. Years later when explaining how
scholarly metaphors may degenerate into superstition "when they fall into
the hands of the ignorant", he himself described an occasion which illustrates
this.

One night, on hearing tin cans being clashed together and a rifle being
fired, the family rushed out of the house to find it was an eclipse of
the moon. Said asked his mother: "Why has the moon gone like that?" She
replied:

"A snake has swallowed it." So Said asked:

"Then why can it still be seen?"

"The snakes in the sky are like glass; they show what they have inside
them."6

Said was only to leam the true answer whcn studying astronomy a few
years later.

Whenever the opportunity arose, and especially in the long winter evenings,
Said would go and listen to any discussions being held by students and
teachers of the medreses, that is, the religious schools, or by religious
figures. These discussions, often about the famous scholars, saints, and
spiritual leaders of the past, usually took the form of contest and debate.
If any of the students or scholars displayed more intelligence than the
others, or was victorious in debate, he was made much of by the others,
and was held in great esteem.7
This appealed to the young Said, too.

In addition, more than being merely independent-minded, it was as though
from his very earliest years, Said was reaching for or was being driven
to discover a way other than that which those around him followed, as the
following, written by some of his students, shows:

"Our Master himself said: `When I was eight or nine years old, contrary
to my family and everyone else in the vicinity, who were attached to the
Naksi tarikat and used to seek assistance
from a famous figure ealled Gavs-i Hizan, I used to say: `O Gavs-ý Geylani!'
Since I was a child. if some insignificant thing like a walnut got lost,
[I would say] `O seyh! I'll say a Fatiha for you and you find this thing
for me!' It is strange and yet I swear that a thousand times the
venerable Seyh came to my assistance through his prayers and saintly intluence.
Therefore, however many Fatihas and supplications I have uttered
in general in my life, after the Person of the Prophet (PBUH), they have
been offered for Seyh-i Geylani. While I am a Naksi in three or four respects,
the Kadiri way and love of it prevail in me involuntarily. But preoccupation
[with study of the religious sciences] prevented my becoming involved with
the tarikat."8 Although, as is
stated here, Said never joined a tarikat or followed the Sufi path - he
was later to describe Sufism as being inappropriate for the needs of the
modem age, his close relationship with Seyh Abdulkadir Geylani continued
throughout his life; on many occasions throughout his life Said received
guidance and assistance through his saintly influence.